Interviews

Q&A WITH AKETXE

19 May 2020Ager Aketxe conceded an interview to Sportpaper AS, the Basque player admitted that he is already talking to the club about a possible renewal. He also talked of the team’s feeling with the return to train.

Q: How about the first week of training?A: The feelings are good. This week it was about accumulating workload, working with fatigue. Within what we could, I think it has been very productive.

Q: The risk is an injury, and Bóveda has already been the first. How are you emotionally?A: It was a big thing. We all start with great enthusiasm, the desire to return... and to find yourself with an injury soon after starting isn’t good. But he is strong, he has already experienced several situations like this, and surely he will recover quickly.

Q: Does this look like a pre-season or is it very different?A: It’s more difficult for me. When you come from a pre-season you come to do work outdoors, to play sports with friends, you play tennis games, paddle tennis... All of this requires an effort that occurs in football. Now it is different, there are fifty-odd days isolated at home no matter how much you do cycling, exercises...

Q: Is it enough the time for the set-up?A: It will not be easy. To get there so fast, two games a week... You have to prepare physically and mentally.

Q: Looking forward to Monday and being able to work as a group…A: In this first week we have been able to return to the field and complete the routine. But what we like is training with teammates, passing the ball to us….

Q: Do you have anxiety waiting for the test results?A: Personally, it is something I think about. With everything that has happened there is concern. But things are being done well and with the head. That doesn’t mean that you live thinking that you can have it, but I feel safe.

Q: Doesn’t knowing the number of games that can be played and the uncertainty of how the relegation will be decided forces you to go out against Sporting as if it were a final?A: As it is. We don’t know if the season will end at any time. We take the game as a final to get out of there in case anything happens. That if you end up being out of those positions to eliminate doubts.

Q: Does that need forces a more offensive Deportivo?A: We haven't had time yet to address that, we will. But I don't think you have to go crazy. With the system we were playing the team would go first in the second round. In the last games the sensations weren’t the best, but we must continue along that line.

Q: Do you notice that this year you are being valued more as a player and not just as a great free-kick taker?A: In the end, players are valued a bit based on how the team is doing. I think I had three phases. I started very well, but the team didn’t get good results and was not valued as much. Then I went down and with the arrival of Fernando [Vázquez] the performance of the team has been very good and that has benefited us all.

Q: Three coaches and you were starter with all of them...A: I have no complaints, I have counted for the three of them. I am grateful to Anquela, Luis César and Fernando. I'm happy, of course.

Q: This week you expressed your desire to continue. Are you already talking to the club?A: The club did contact my agent to communicate a bit about the idea they had with me. The club doesn’t know yet the future, you have to end the season and then sit down. I have already said that I am very happy here and my family, too. I feel valued for club and fans and that’s the most beautiful thing a player can ask for. I think Deportivo is a Primera team.

Q: To continue or not is in your hands, and with that disposition...A: My predisposition is good and the club knows it. From there everything is easier. If club and player want to continue, it is easier to reach an agreement.

Q: How eager are you that those free-kicks you take out with so much danger re-enter the goal?A: Well you can imagine it, many. At the beginning of the season the ball was entering almost without meaning to. Now it is harder, That if a post, that if just... In the end is to keep trying. The ball will go inside.

Q: And have you thought about how to celebrate a goal with so much protocol and the empty stands?A: We haven't discussed it. The truth is that we haven’t thought about it yet. The stand is something essential in football, and more in the case of Deportivo. I guess it will be more like a pre-season game than anything else.